Space News Update - January 24, 2017 - In the News Departments Story 1: New U.S. weather satellite with improved camera sends back first images Story 2: Cassini Spies Daphnis Making Waves Story 3: Dwarf galaxies shed light on dark matter Departments The Night Sky ISS Sighting Opportunities Space Calendar NASA-TV Highlights Food for Thought Space Image of the Week

New U.S. weather satellite with improved camera sends back first images In this computer graphic, NASA's Voyager 1 probe, moving toward upper left, nears the edge of the sun's influence, flying through a region of space dominated by a "magnetic highway" that helps mediate the flow of particles into and out of the solar system. The region includes particles from the sun's southern hemisphere that have been forced northward by the pressure of the interstellar wind. Voyager 1 is expected to cross the boundary into interstellar space sometime within the next few years if not sooner. (Credit: NASA)

Cassini Spies Daphnis Making Waves

Dwarf galaxies shed light on dark matter

The Night Sky Sky & Telescope Tuesday, January 24 • As dawn brightens on Wednesday morning the 25th, look very low in the southeast for the thin waning crescent Moon, as shown here. Saturn is about 14° to the upper right of it (for North America). Little Mercury is about 6° below the Moon. Binoculars will help, especially as dawn grows brighter. Wednesday, January 25 • Sirius twinkles brightly after dinnertime below Orion in the southeast. Around 8 p.m., depending on your location, Sirius shines precisely below Betelgeuse in Orion's shoulder. How accurately can you time this event for your location, perhaps using a plumb bob or the vertical edge of a building? Of the two, Sirius leads early in the evening; Betelgeuse leads later. Thursday, January 26 • Right after dark this week, face east and look very high, almost overhead. The bright star there is Capella, the Goat Star. To the right of it, by a couple of finger-widths at arm's length, is a small, narrow triangle of 3rd and 4th magnitude stars known as "the Kids." Although they're not exactly eye-grabbing, they form a never-forgotten asterism with Capella. Friday, January 27 • The sky's biggest asterism (informal star pattern) — at least the biggest that's widely recognized — is the Winter Hexagon. It now fills the sky toward the east and south after dinnertime. Start with brilliant Sirius at its bottom. Going clockwise from there, march through Procyon, Pollux and Castor, Menkalinan and Capella very high, Aldebaran over to Capella's lower right, down to Rigel in Orion's foot, and back to Sirius. Betelgeuse shines inside the Hexagon, off center. • New Moon (exact at 7:07 p.m. EST). Sky & Telescope

ISS Sighting Opportunities ISS For Denver: Date Visible Max Height Appears Disappears Thu Jan 26, 7:14 PM 1 min 19° 11° above SSW 19° above SSW Fri Jan 27, 6:23 PM 3 min 23° 11° above S 23° above SE Sighting information for other cities can be found at NASA’s Satellite Sighting Information

NASA-TV Highlights (all times Eastern Time Zone)   2:30 p.m., 9:30 p.m., Tuesday, January 24 - NASA Television Special – Suit Up – 50 Years of Spacewalking Documentary (all channels) 3:30 p.m., 7 p.m., Tuesday, January 24 - NASA Pool Feed of the Funeral for Captain Eugene A. Cernan (all channels) 5:30 p.m., 9 p.m., Tuesday, January 24 - NASA Television Special – Apollo 17 on the Shoulders of Giants Documentary (all channels) 6 p.m., 10 p.m., Tuesday, January 24 - NASA Television Video File News Feed (all channels) 1 p.m., 5 p.m., 8 p.m., Wednesday, January 25 - NASM’S “STEM in 30” – The Biology of Long-Term Spaceflight (NTV-1 (Public)) 2 p.m., Wednesday, January 25 - ISS Expedition 52-53 Crew News Conference (Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli) (all channels) 7 p.m., 9 p.m., Wednesday, January 25 - Replay of the ISS Expedition 52-53 Crew News Conference (Ryazanskiy, Bresnik and Nespoli) (all channels) 10 a.m., 4 p.m., 8 p.m., Thursday, January 26 - Day of Remembrance Ceremony from the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex (all channels) 10:30 a.m., 3 p.m., 7 p.m., 11 p.m., Thursday, January 26 - ISS Expedition 50 In-Flight Educational Event with the Jenks Public Schools in Tulsa, Oklahoma and Commander Shane Kimbrough of NASA (starts at 10:35 a.m.) (all channels) 10 a.m., Friday, January 27 - Coverage of the Departure of the H-II Transfer Vehicle (HTV-6) from the International Space Station (Release scheduled at 10:30 a.m. ET) (all channels) 11 a.m., 6 p.m., 9 p.m., Friday, January 27 - Apollo 1 Memorial Program (all channels) Watch NASA TV online by going to the NASA website

Space Calendar JPL Space Calendar Jan 24 - DSN-2 H-2A Launch Jan 24 - Apollo Asteroid 2011 CO14 Near-Earth Flyby (0.059 AU) Jan 24 - Asteroid 42776 Casablanca Closest Approach To Earth (2.175 AU) Jan 24 - Michio Kaku's 70th Birthday (1947) Jan 24 - Harold Babcock's 135th Birthday (1882) Jan 25 - Comet 33P/Daniel Closest Approach To Earth (1.630 AU) Jan 25 - Comet 328P/LONEOS-Tucker At Opposition (2.689 AU) Jan 25 - Asteroid 133 Cyrene Occults HIP 81266 (2.8 Magnitude Star) Jan 25 - [Jan 22] Apollo Asteroid 2017 BX Near-Earth Flyby (0.018 AU) Jan 25 - Apollo Asteroid 7341 (1991 VK) Near-Earth Flyby (0.065 AU) Jan 25 - Apollo Asteroid 3103 Eger Closest Approach To Earth (0.508 AU) Jan 25 - Asteroid 6001 Thales Closest Approach To Earth (2.025 AU) Jan 25 - Lecture: Future Histories and Forecasting, London, United Kingdom Jan 25 - Colloquium: The Romance of Physics, Greenbelt, Maryland Jan 26 - Echostar 23 Falcon 9 Launch Jan 26 - Comet P/2016 G1 (PANSTARRS) Perihelion (2.041 AU) Jan 26 - Comet 343P/NEAT-LONEOS Perihelion (2.277 AU) Jan 26 - Comet 51P/Harrington At Opposition (3.203 AU) Jan 26 - Comet 51P-A/Harrington At Opposition (3.203 AU) Jan 26 - Comet C/2017 A3 (Elenin) Closest Approach To Earth (3.450 AU) Jan 26 - Comet 193P/LINEAR-NEAT Closest Approach To Earth (3.549 AU) Jan 26 - Apollo Asteroid 2017 AK3 Near-Earth Flyby (0.029 AU) Jan 26 - Apollo Asteroid 2016 YP4 Near-Earth Flyby (0.033 AU) Jan 26 - Asteroid 6336 Dodo Closest Approach To Earth (1.551 AU) Jan 26 - Apollo Asteroid 3671 Dionysus Closest Approach To Earth (1.948 AU) Jan 26 - Lecture: The Life-Cycle of Gas in Dying Galaxies, Ithaca, New York Jan 26 - [Jan 19] 1st Global Earth Observation System of Systems (GEOSS) Portal User Demo - Virtual Workshop Jan 26 - 55th Anniversary (1962), Ranger 3 Launch (Moon Impact Mission) Jan 26 - Bessie Coleman's 125th Birthday (1892) Jan 27 - [Jan 20] 50th Anniversary (1967), Apollo 1 Fire (Gus Grissom, Edward White & Roger Chaffee) Jan 27 - Comet 51P-D/Harrington At Opposition (3.210 AU) Jan 27 - Comet C/2015 X5 (PANSTARRS) Closest Approach To Earth (6.177 AU) Jan 27 - Apollo Asteroid 12711 Tukmit Closest Approach To Earth (0.778 AU) Jan 27 - Asteroid 6779 Perrine Closest Approach To Earth (1.054 AU) Jan 27 - Asteroid 2700 Baikonur Closest Approach To Earth (1.834 AU) JPL Space Calendar

Experiment resolves mystery about wind flows on Jupiter Food for Thought Experiment resolves mystery about wind flows on Jupiter

Hubble's Slice of Sagittarius Space Image of the Week Hubble's Slice of Sagittarius